Category Archives: Democratic Consolidation

Since Macedonian Prime Minister Gruevski accused the opposition of plotting the overthrow of the government and espionage and opposition leader Zoran Zaev began regularly releasing “bombs” of wiretapped calls that suggest corruption, abuse of office, electoral fraud and a range of other crimes by the prime minister and his associates, tensions in Macedonia have been…

On March 16, 2015 the foreign ministers of the 28 EU member states gave the green light for the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the European Union (EU) to enter into force. The SAA is a treaty with a complex story. Back in 2005 its signature quickly became burdened…

For the past few months we have been witnessing an abundant expression of resistance in Macedonia, manifested by the dissent of different social groups from students, professors, part-time workers, journalists, teachers to high-school students. All of them, for different reasons, and organized under different Plenums, have displayed their resentment against the authoritarian practices of the…

In a surreal turn of events, Nikola Gruevski, Prime Minister of Macedonia, accused Zoran Zaev, leader of the main opposition party, for plotting a coup d’etat with the help of a foreign secret service. A week later, Zaev revealed wire-tapped phone conversations of himself, journalists, leaders of Albanian political parties and members of Gruevski’s cabinet.…

Almost two years after it joined the European Union, Croatia is still in a rather deep economic crisis, which has resulted in high unemployment and continued decrease of the country’s GDP. Although there are some signs of recovery, it will take time before the first positive trends are felt by the general population. At the…

On February 3, 2015, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decided to reject both the claim of Croatia and the counter-claim of Serbia. The outcome of this dispute is a logical outcome. The jurisdiction of the ICJ was limited to genocide, and this fearsome threshold was not passed. It is important to note that, as…

On 31st January 2015 the Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, publicly announced that the state institutions are persecuting Mr. Zoran Zaev, the leader of the Social Democratic Union (SDSM) opposition party, for espionage and violence against representatives of top state authorities with a purpose of violently undermining the constitutional order. Gruevski claims that he held…

The verdict of the Greek people in the national elections of 25 January 2015 was loud and clear. The Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) prevailed, winning 36.3% of votes against 27.8% of New Democracy (ND), the main centre-right party. The Greek voters unequivocally expressed their exhaustion, despair and resent caused by a five-year-long period…

The historic Brussels Agreement of 19 April 2013 between the governments of Serbia and Kosovo, which rounded up a series of technical agreements, set high hopes for the normalisation of relations between the two. Some of the agreements’ most ostensible and clearly defined points have been (partially) implemented – such as the establishment of freedom…

Recently, the government of Macedonia, led by the national-conservative party (VMRO-DPMNE), has announced new amendments to the Law on Higher Education. The new Law, according to the authorities, should improve the quality of education in Macedonia. The proposed amendments envisage students to take an ‘external examination’ twice before graduation. Should students fail the testing, they…

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